Stafford Act Essay

One topic that is in the cross fire on debates all the time is the federal policy on disaster relief, and disaster preparedness. The federal government has programs put into place to help the victims of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and tornados. Some of these disaster relief programs are The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and The Red Cross. These programs have many policies in place, but some feel that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to improve these policies.

When we spoke last week we discussed the school district’s concerns regarding child find under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for students who have an individual health plan (“IHP”).

The Creation of FEMA started out as a beautiful theory. Before FEMA we had an Acts constructed to make the situation better but FEMA was constructed to assistance the situations first hand so that the American people were catered to at a quicker response and in a manner that was assessed for safety situations. “On April 1, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the executive order that created the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). From day one, FEMA has remained committed to protecting and serving the American people. That commitment to the people we serve and the belief in our survivor centric mission will never change.” This is stated on fema.gov; this shows that FEMA was designed to be the leaders in effect for disasters that

Since I was fifteen I have always been drawn to answering important questions, engaging in meaningful discussions, and touching lives in intentional and personal ways. My favourite thing to do is disciple; engage in authentic conversations about life, relationships, and Jesus through a mixture of counseling, mentoring, and teaching. I have been intrigued by philosophy and theology since high school. Since then I did my undergraduate degree at Summit Pacific College, close to where I live so that I could help my family build our new house, while preparing to impact my world for Christ. At Summit, I earned a BA in Religion, with a major in Biblical Theology. In this major I took exegetical coursework, first year Hebrew and Greek, and was prepared for Graduate studies with a thesis course.

Over the years of Hurricane Katrina, FEMA faced many criticisms. Not only FEMA, but “every level of government was roundly criticized”( Howellq ). Back in 9/11, They acted fast and accordingly to the disaster. During hurricane Katrina, they were slow and had false promises that the locals of New Orleans believed ( Maestri, “The Storm”, PBS ). Many people asked FEMA for resources and help, but that turned down because they did not “ask the right way” ( Hale “The Storm”, PBS). During an interview with one of FEMA’s secretaries, “Michael Brown”, had claimed that FEMA could not help Louisiana because they didn’t tell them what they

In the time of Katrina, this idea made federal government believed that their nonintervention was justified, causing the misunderstanding between governments at all level and the failure of efficient disaster aid. However, considering the purpose of the Constitution, this is a misinterpretation of the Tenth Amendment. The Tenth Amendment is not a reason for federal government to refuse offer common Defence and welfare to each states. The Bill of Right that contains Tenth Amendment serves to limit the abusive power of the federal government. It creates a Constitutional system includes big and small government with balanced power and the right to check each other. This idea does not conflict with the federal government’s original intentions as how the preamble and Article. I. Section. 8 declares. In fact, the Tenth Amendment indicates the federal government assistance to the state and local government’s work. Before and after the disaster, the federal government should provide help to coordination with states

OSAP, a program designed to benefit Ontario residents in need; they can apply to receive a Canada-Ontario integrated student loan through the Ontario Student Assistance Program or OSAP. The program was started back in the 1990’s, by the Ontario government to enable those with lower incomes to receive loans, grants and scholarships which allows them to have the ability to pay for their post secondary education.

The whole world observed as the administration responders appeared incapable to provide essential protection from the effects of nature. The deprived response results from a failure to accomplish a number of risk factors (Moynihan, 2009). The dangers of a major hurricane striking New Orleans had been measured, and there was sufficient warning of the threat of Katrina that announcements of emergency were made days in advance of landfall (Moynihan, 2009). Nonetheless, the responders were unsuccessful to change this information into a level of preparation suitable with the possibility of the approaching disaster. Federal responders failed to recognize the need to more actively engage (Moynihan, 2009). These improvements include improved ability to provide support to states and tribes ahead of a disaster; developed a national disaster recovery strategy to guide recovery efforts after major disasters and emergencies; and the Establishment of Incident Management Assistance Teams in which these full time, rapid response teams are able to deploy within two hours and arrive at an incident within 12 hours to support the local incident commander (FEMA,

Within the constitution, there is no explicit clause that grants the federal government to provide relief for natural disasters, and therefore under the 10th amendment the power is in that of the states, not the government. However, despite this recently the federal government has been held accountable to providing relief efforts. In addition, there is no way to change the constitution to give the federal government this power, as neither can the legislative, nor executive, nor judicial branch can add/change the constitution, and therefore this power must be returned to the states. The article suggests that through the federalist papers, the founders wanted the states to unite together, and provide relief to each other as the states, not the

On May 12, 1933 after years of struggling to get started, the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) was created. The one who would oversee this program was Harry Hopkins. A key condition of the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 was that for authorization of this program to even begin FERA would need to expire in two years. So, with a very small deadline the FERA decided to set required guidelines and procedures for this act. One of those required guidelines was the administrations had to work with state government by providing federal grants for relief purposes. Those States with grant applications were to provide information on the amount of money that was necessary to meet relief needs in their state. They also had to share the amounts available

American Red Cross is a non-profit organization that works for the betterment of human life by providing food, shelter and assistance to the victims of several disasters; hence, the implication of the section 501 (c) (3) has a significant impact on the services offered by American Red Cross as it selects the organizations that qualify for tax exemption.

The majority of the immediate relief occurred thanks to the aid of private organizations such as the Red Cross along with the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (McNeill, 2011). The Bush administration and other government figures acted incredibly slowly and were unable to give the

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a body under the United States Department of Homeland Security that was created in 1978 to improve the safety of the American residents, especially during disasters. FEMA has a primary mandate of coordinating the response to any disaster that may occur in the U.S. and that overwhelms both local and state authorities’ resources. FEMA comes in to aid only after the governor of the involved state has declared a state of emergency and has made a formal request. However, there is an exception to the gubernatorial declaration requirement, when an emergency occurs on a federal property such as the Space Shuttle Columbia experienced in the 2003 return-flight disaster ("About the FEMA Agency", 2016).

It is my opinion that some of the problems FEMA experienced can be attributed to the public’s lack of awareness of the assistance available during those chaotic times. To combat this lack of awareness, FEMA teamed up with the Ad Council and a private advertising firm, Muezzin Brown & Partners, to develop a public service campaign that made the public aware, through the use of media outlets, that assistance was available and provided FEMA’s toll-free number to register for assistance. (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2017)

“Yale is the place that endowed me with the confidence and the grand scope of the world that a young designer needed to excel and make a difference in the real world.” – Yansong Ma. Yale University (M.Arch ’02).